Born in the Payne Avenue district of West Kingston, Jamaica on February 11th 1966, Clive Bright would go on to become one of the most influential singers of the early digital reggae when in 1985 he joined up with producer Winston Riley and had his most successful hit single "Ring the Alarm", voiced over the Stalag riddim. This tune even now still brings the house down and has been sampled and had influence on many artists including the megastar Beyonce Knowles who based a performance around Tenor Saw's "Ring The Alarm" which was incorporated in to her The Beyonce Experience shows in 2007. The song had millions of views on youtube and was seen as a highly influential artist in today's media being influenced a genre which is different to her own.
It all started however for
Tenor Saw the year with his first single, "Roll Call" recorded for George Phang's Powerhouse label, on the Queen Majesty riddim. From here he moved on, with his friend Nitty Gritty, to work with Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion sound system and label and scored huge hits in Jamaica with "Lots of Sign", "Pumpkin Belly", "Run Come Call Me", and "Fever". This then led to “Ring the Alarm” and its success led him to work with Prince Jammy, recording "Pumpkin Belly" on Jammy's (then) new and popular Sleng Teng riddim. The hits kept coming in 1986 with the Mad Mad riddim tune “Golden Hen" on the Uptempo label with producer Keith ‘Gorgan’ Wignall, plus Minott issued Tenor Saw's debut album, “Fever” that year, which by then was almost something of a ‘best of’.
However by the time of the albums release, Tenor Saw had relocated to Miami, joining the Skengdon crew, where he recorded "Dancehall Feeling" and "Bad Boys". He also recorded "No Work On a Sunday" for Donovan Germain, before moving to New York, where he worked with Freddie McGregor on "Victory Train" plus he made his last ever recording, "Chill Out Chill Out", a duet with General Doggie, because in the August of 1988 while in Houston, Texas he was found dead on the road side, apparently killed by a speeding car in a hit and run, he was just 22 years of age. No one has ever faced charges about that night and conspiracy stories abounded and led to Nitty Gritty recording "Who Killed Tenor Saw?". He was highly regarded with King Kong recording a tribute and Supercat's singing "Nuff man a Dead" about the death of Tenor Saw and other superstars of the time.
Born in the Payne Avenue district of West Kingston, Jamaica on February 11th 1966, Clive Bright would go on to become one of the most influential singers of the early digital reggae when in 1985 he joined up with producer Winston Riley and had his most successful hit single "Ring the Alarm", voiced over the Stalag riddim. This tune even now still brings the house down and has been sampled and had influence on many artists including the megastar Beyonce Knowles who based a performance around Tenor Saw's "Ring The Alarm" which was incorporated in to her The Beyonce Experience shows in 2007. The song had millions of views on youtube and was seen as a highly influential artist in today's media being influenced a genre which is different to her own.
However by the time of the albums release, Tenor Saw had relocated to Miami, joining the Skengdon crew, where he recorded "Dancehall Feeling" and "Bad Boys". He also recorded "No Work On a Sunday" for Donovan Germain, before moving to New York, where he worked with Freddie McGregor on "Victory Train" plus he made his last ever recording, "Chill Out Chill Out", a duet with General Doggie, because in the August of 1988 while in Houston, Texas he was found dead on the road side, apparently killed by a speeding car in a hit and run, he was just 22 years of age. No one has ever faced charges about that night and conspiracy stories abounded and led to Nitty Gritty recording "Who Killed Tenor Saw?". He was highly regarded with King Kong recording a tribute and Supercat's singing "Nuff man a Dead" about the death of Tenor Saw and other superstars of the time.
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